Banff Film Festival Review

Richard, Carl and I went to see the award winning adventure films at the expo on Saturday night. I have been pondering ever since. Let me first state that I enjoyed the films.

Life Cycles, The Mountain Biking Film was very artsy and beautiful, It took place in Saskatchewan, there was lots of flipping up and out of the wheat fields. It left me wondering what the jump looked like to get them that much air and why Grandpa was doing all the work while these guys were goofing off. I hope they gave him some of the prize money. I like the part where the seasons changed on the wheels of the cyclist.

 

The Asgard Project was my favorite. Wow, you have to go all the way to the arctic to find a big wall that hasn't been free climbed. I noticed the there is a lot of aid climbing in a free climb, scoping out routes... hauling gear and ropes.... I say, if you are going to free climb, Free Climb it! That might change the standards and free up a few more big walls to be "free climbed". 12 days on a wall seems like quite a few; wonder how much weight those boys lost. Leo provided interesting drama and commentary while Stanley was busy free climbing and getting the job done. The 3 heroes got to fly wing suits off the top. Their buddies spent hours getting the ropes and gear down. But I guess throughout history, there have been the big names and support crew. Life on the big wall sure looks like a challenge. It was a good movie. Click here for more about it

Into the Dark- took us spelunking! No thanks. It sure was pretty, but I had to close my eyes sometimes as I am not interested in performing any move with the word " squeeze" in it. The location is super secret. This movie was hard to breathe through.

There was a movie about Kayaking in Norway. It sure was exciting. It made me wonder where the line was between going off Niagara in a barrel and kayaking off a 100 foot waterfall. Do you really have that much more control in a kayak? Kayakers, this is a real question, lets discuss it.

The last one was about Snowboarding off some vertical faces in the Fairweather Range in Alaska. This range happened to be where John and Richard found a crashed plane, ask them about it. Anyway, these snowboarders did a nice job hiking up some very vertical snow, and then fell of the top using their snowboards to cushion their landings.

I suppose that's what happened in all the films. If you jump off things you need to figure out how to land. And it make sense to use a tool that you are familiar with, a kayak, a snowboard, a wing suit.........can't explain the cave thing though.

Did you go? What did you think?

Then the biggest adventure happened. Ice Storm! I have mad driving skills, I used inertia heavily. I really wanted applause when I pulled into the garage. Oh well I got us home safely, Hope you got home safely too.

PS This was the Banff Film Festival not the B.A.M.F. Film Festival.